Issue 9: Old Songs, New Tricks

Reviewing new albums from Panda Bear and Danger Mouse!

Aug 26, 2022

Welcome back to Band Practice, where I listen to a new album every day and write about my favorites. This week I have two recommendations for you: Reset from Panda Bear and Sonic Boom and Cheat Codes from Danger Mouse and Black Thought. Let’s get started!

Intro

What happens when you try to put a new spin on an old classic? Sometimes it’s a flop, like the recent attempts to cover and interpolate1 Hole’s “Celebrity Skin” from Doja Cat and Demi Lovato, respectively. Big oof. Sometimes new interpretations don’t do enough to set themselves apart from the original. Charli XCX’s “Used To Know Me” falls into this category. She used an interpolation of Robin S.’s “Show Me Love” (also used by Beyoncé in “Break My Soul”), but didn’t add much to it. Sometimes, though, the marriage of old and new creates something that takes on new life. That’s the case for both of this week’s albums: Reset from Panda Bear and Sonic Boom, and Cheat Codes from Danger Mouse and Black Thought.

While the albums have very different sounds, sampled songs from the 1960s and 70s serve as their backbone. If you grew up in that era, you might recognize some of them. Keep your ears out for samples from artists like The Everly Brothers and The Drifters in Reset, and the Ebony Rhythm Band and Federal Duck in Cheat Codes. While Reset uses single sources for its samples, in Cheat Codes multiple samples are pieced together like a collage. Both approaches produce sounds that are unique, adding new dimensions to these gems from the past.

Now, we could get into a whole thing about whether the use of samples or interpolations has equal merit to any other form of musical composition, but I’m going to put the kibosh on that for the moment. Sampling has been around for a long time, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a piece of music that doesn’t make reference to something that has come before it in one way or another. Even Prince, who had strong opinions about sampling (clip below) sampled Bonnie Raitt in his song “Cream.” So, for now, with all philosophical quandaries aside, I invite you to listen to this week’s albums with an open mind, paying attention to what feels familiar and what feels fresh and what the music sparks in you.

Picks of the week

Reset - Panda Bear & Sonic Boom

Alternative

From the second I put this album on, it brings a smile to my face. The opening strummed guitar chords—a sample of "Three Steps to Heaven" by Eddie Cochran—are full of bright, cheerful, positive vibes. It both takes me back to something nostalgic and jettisons me into the future. Time is not linear in the space of this album, it is a whole Jeremy Bearimy of loops and squiggles.

Reset is a collaboration between singer/songrwriter/musician Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and singer/songwriter/producer Peter Kember (Sonic Boom). You may know Lennox as the lead singer of Animal Collective—an experimental pop/rock band who also put out a new album earlier this year (it’s just ok). Kember also has experimental roots as a former member of defunct psychedelic rock band Spacemen 3. While they have previously worked together on some of Panda Bear’s prior albums, this is the first collaboration where Lennox and Kember have had an equal hand in singing, songwriting, and production. They collaborated on the album remotely, recording from their respective home studios in Portugal. “He’d send me the loops, then I would send back the blueprint of the song,” Lennox said.2 That intimate, homegrown sensibility can be felt through the album.

Inspired by retro samples with "a lot of juice to them,” Lennox and Kember set out to make something, “nostalgic for a past that never existed and a future that never will exist.”3 They pulled samples from 1960s rock, doo-wop, and rockabilly, adding flourishes like guïro, sleigh bells, synths, and electronic trills, transforming it into psychedellic pop. But it is their vocal harmonies that really make this album shine. Lennox's Brian Wilson-esque tenor voice and Kember’s beautiful bass tones blend so smoothly it's like they were run through a Vitamix. The result of this mélange is an album that feels like The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds if it were on the teensiest bit (more?) of mushrooms.

One of the standout singles of the album is “Edge of the Edge.” It’s immediately endearing, sampling the “oohs” and rhythmic hand clapping from "Denise" by Randy & the Rainbows. Added to the mix is a spritely little synth melody and a dial-up sound hailing from the island of misfit toys. (The sound was from a toy that Kember tried to use on albums he produced for MGMT and Beach House, which they both rejected.4 Their loss!) While the song's cryptic lyrics probably have a darker meaning than it seems (true throughout the album), the post-chorus "up to the edge of the edge of the edge..." is catchy enough to get you singing along in naïveté.

In my favorite track, “Danger,” the lyrics also contrast the sentiment of the original song. “And to the end of this cold landscape, I'll keep coming back for more of your danger. When your grip gets a hold of me,” is juxtaposed with The Everly Brothers’ ruffly guitar chords from their song "Love of My Life". The song still feels delightfully warm, with the spirited slide of a guïro taking the wind out of any dark subtext. But it is Kember’s subterranean vocals that really make this song swoon-worthy.

One of the most beautiful tracks on the album, “In My Body” doesn’t rely on samples at all but an electronic patchwork of sounds. While what sounds like space cars from The Jetsons whir in the background, Lennox and Kember’s vocals are the main focus. Lennox’s vocals float into the sky like a balloon escaping a child’s grasp while Kember’s voice provides some grounding. The clicking of a wood block is your tether to reality in the middle of this trippy tableau.

The final track, “Everything’s Been Leading to This” is another created from scratch. Its foundation is a high-pitched synth riff that sounds like something out of the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland. Sleigh bells, synths, wood block, and that trusty guïro fill out the sound. The song spins and builds with guitar, cowbell, and hand claps added to the mix. Like a merry-go-round, the song is dizzying enough to be thrilling without losing your bearings. It is the perfect climactic ending to an absolute treasure of an album. Everything has, indeed, been leading to this. Whether it’s leading us to the past or future or both, it’s a delightful journey.

I recommend situating yourself in front of your best speakers or listening through your favorite headphones for this one.

Also available on Apple Music, bandcamp

Cheat Codes - Danger Mouse & Black Thought

Hip-Hop/Rap

Cheat Codes is the brilliant merger of two artists who are masters of their craft. Brian Burton—who performs under the moniker Danger Mouse—is a prolific musician, songwriter, and producer known for his killer collaborations and the fusion of seemingly dichotomous worlds. One such fusion is his most well-known album The Grey Album—an unsanctioned mash-up using vocals from Jay-Z’s The Black Album and instrumentals from The Beatles’ The White Album. In his latest album, Burton partners with Tariq Trotter (also known as Black Thought), lead MC of hip-hop band The Roots (of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon fame). Besides his work with The Roots, Trotter has put out several acclaimed solo albums under his Streams of Thought series.

In Cheat Codes, Burton and Trotter grapple with themes of success and survival. The use of vintage samples on the album asserts that moving forward and upward requires understanding the past. The landscapes that Burton creates with these samples are like a plush velvet couch for Trotter’s lyrics to rest comfortably on. Trotter rhymes with momentum—each verse building to the next with complex rhyming schemes and layers of meaning. The vibe is relaxed with a confidence and coolness that radiates so strongly you can feel it in your guts.

The opening track “Sometimes” sets the tone for the album, using an impassioned sample from Gwen McCrae’s “Love Without Sex”. Trotter raps, “I threw the rhyme book straight into the fire this time. I'm thinking.” He announces that he’s gone off script and what we hear on this album free-flows from his mind. And the rhymes that flow are profound.

Trotter uses layers upon layers of references like a well-made lasagna. In “The Darkest Part”, over a bright and jangly piano riff he rhymes, “I'm like Thelonious at the underground piano, dressed in camo, the grenades, guns, and ammo. Death to Sambo, send him a bouquet and a candle. I came to take back that other two-fifths of a man, so”. He makes reference to a Theloious Monk album that uses military themes on its cover, nods to a pejorative term with a dark history, and references the three-fifths compromise while using symbols of war and death all within a few lines.

Also in the “The Darkest Part,” he employs a technique of rhyming multisyllabic words and lines together (bold added for emphasis). “It ain't an easy odyssey for you to follow me. We do kinesiology with no apology.” His skillful execution throughout the album makes almost no missteps—the exception being the unfortunate use of an ableist slur later in the song (something today’s artists need to be better about avoiding).

In “Belize”, Burton uses some sparkly sounds and vocals from sample of “Peace In My Mind” by Federal Duck to create the backdrop for the track. What Trotter does with his lyrics is mind-blowing. His uses long runs of rhymes, rhyming as many as eight lines together in sequence. In the last four lines of the song, Trotter seems to fold time as he doubles down (bold added for emphasis).

Catastrophic, supreme microphoners
In Mexico, we the legendary dos cojones
Brothers, both components of the close to coldest
Court holders with bars as hard as Angola's

As he makes it clear, he delivers lines “like an obstetrician” and his rhymes are no match for the “Cambridge, the Websters, the Oxfords.”

In a favorite track of mine, “Aquamarine” the smooth, intricate collage-work that is Burton’s production is on full display. Samples include “To Take Him Away” by Sandrose (the faint orchestral sounds) and “Funky Spider” by Meatball (the beeping-like guitar riff). Sung vocals are provided by soul artist Michael Kiwanuka, who Burton has previously worked with as a producer. All of this is met by Trotter’s masterful rapping. On this track, he uses layers of references to the Quran and biology to contemplate whether his success was predetermined by God or a product of evolution. “I'm a king, I'm dipped in God's Black complexion. Survival of the fittest is the natural selection.”

Throughout this album, Burton and Trotter have definitely proven themselves to be the fittest. Through air-tight production and dexterous rhymes, they have shown that cheat codes aren’t needed to achieve their success.

Also available on Apple Music

12 more albums I listened to

Sticking With It - The Dip (R&B/Soul)
Thing - Modulator (US) (Dance)
Headful of Sugar - Sunflower Bean (Alternative)
The Alien Coast - St. Paul & The Broken Bones (Soul)
No Rules Sandy - Sylvan Esso (Alternative)
Image Langage - Felicia Atkinson (IDM/Experimental)
Traumazine - Megan Thee Stallion (Hip-Hop/Rap)
Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson - She & Him (Alternative)
I hope you’re well in these crazy times - courtship. (Indie Pop)
Get Fucked - The Chats (Punk)
Bleed Out - The Mountain Goats (Rock)
Heartmind - Cass McCombs (Alternative)

The Playlist!

These are my favorite songs off of each new album I listened to this year listed in chronological order of listening. The playlist is long so, if you want to hear the songs from the albums in this issue, scroll to the end. I update the playlist with every issue.

365 Albums in 2022 - Apple Music playlist

365 Albums in 2022 - Spotify playlist

Thanks for reading! For the next issue, I’m listening to new albums from Demi Lovato, LIFE, Julia Jacklin and more. I’ll review my favorite(s). If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss it.

What have you been listening to lately? Anything good? Let me know in the comments.

Band Practice